Saturday, February 18, 2017

It's a gas gas gas

It is 12 weeks from today that the Ice Age 50 mile begins. I have completed 15 of these jaunts and I constantly remind people it is my favorite race. I guess now-a-days I can call it my favorite event rather than race. Covering the distance in as short as time as possible is generally the goal which means more emphasis on speed these days. So the idea that most of the chips left on the table will be pushed into trying to run a fast half on 4/1 has been entertained. The thinking goes as such. Speed/strength will be enhanced and with a half dozen target type runs (course specific speed efforts and general 25 - 35 mile runs), getting to 7:50 may seem attainable. The other reason is seeing what type of time can be produced in a half. If way over 1:30 then forget about lining up at Lakefront and forget 7:50 at Ice Age.

The watch I wear has a feature that chronicles your best efforts. I zeroed them out this year. Running through the first couple I see 6:46.9 for the mile and 22:14 for the 5k. As disheartening as these are I won't even list the 10k and half. Then it dawned on me. Next week we are going to Arizona for a week of vacationing (and looking for retirement ideas) which means I'll run 50 - 80 minutes a day first thing so it does not interfere with anything else. This being the case I'm thinking of trying to break all my 2017 watch PRs of 1 mile, 5k, and 10k.